EFFECT OF PROCESSING ON THE PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS YIELD OF BROILERS FED DIFFERENTLY PROCESSED SORREL HIBISCUS SABDARIFFA SEED MEAL

Nyameh, J¹., A.J. Ribanre¹; J. Alabi², B.J. Mufwa¹ and A.M. Gyau³

¹Department of Animal Production, College of Agriculture Jalingo, Nigeria

²Sebore Farms (EPZ) Mayo-Belwa, Adamawa, Nigeria

³Department of Agriculture Science, Kurgwi, Plateau State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

A seven weeks feeding trial was conducted to determined the effect of processing on the performance and carcass yield of broilers fed differently processed sorrel Hibiscus sabdariffa seed meal as replacement for groundnut cake. One hundred and twenty (120) day-old broiler chicks were randomly weighed and assigned to five (5) dietary treatments in a group of twenty four (24) birds each, each treatment was replicated twice with twelve (12) birds per replicate in a completely randomized block design (CRBD). The different processing methods adopted were soaking, boiling, soak and boil and sprouting for T2, T3, T4, and T5 respectively as raw (T1) was used as the control. The differently processed sorrel seed meal were incorporated to replaced 50% of the groundnut cake portion of the formulated diets. The birds were fed the experimental diets and water was provided without restriction through out the experimental period. The results showed that the daily feed intake ranged from 167.86g/day – 179.64g/day and the corresponding daily weight gain also ranged from 35.24g/bird – 39.17g/bird. The daily feed intake, daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio did not differ significantly (P>0.05) among all the treatments. The group fed raw sorrel seed meal (T1) recorded the highest dressed weight (1448.80g) and T5 was superior than T2, T3, and T4. Therefore, 50% of the GNC could be replaced with processed sorrel seed meal in broilers diet without adverse effect on the performance and carcass yield of the chicken.

Keywords: Processing, sorrel seed meal, broilers, performance, carcass.